Folding chair.



G. E. BECKMAN'.

FOLDING CHAIR.

APPLICATION FILED Dnc. ze, 1909-.

Patented Apr. 25, 1911.

' -2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WITNl-:ssEs':

INVENTQR;

G. E. BECKMAN.

FOLDING CHAIR. APPLIOAUQN FILED DB0. 29, 1909.

Patented A111225, 1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

1HE Nmzls PETERS cm, wAsHlNc'oN. D, c.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CLARENCE E. I-IECKlVIAN, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR 'IO MARVIN E. MOSHER, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.

FOLDING CHAIR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed. December 29, 1909.

Patented Apr. 25, 1911.

Serial No. 535,530.

To all whom it 'may concern:

Be it known that I, CLARENCE E. HECK- MAN, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Folding Chairs, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to folding chairs, and the object of the invention is to produce a chair that can be folded up into such small compass that it is suitable for use as an emergency seat in vehicles, and particularly automobiles.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a front view of a chair embodying the present invention attached to its support, and opened up for use; Figs. 2, 3 and 4: are side views, the first showing the chair open, and the other two illustrating the manner in which it folds; Figs. 5 and 6 also illustrate the folding operation in front view; Fig. 7 is a section on the line 7-7 of Fig. 5; Figs. 8 and 9 are both sections on the line 8--8 of Fig. 7, showing the parts in different positions; Figs. 10 and 11 are side views of the 'joint in the seat back; and Fig. 12 is a section on the line 12-12 of FiO. l0.

The illustrated embodiment of the invention comprises a folding seat and a folding back. One leaf of a hinge l is attached to the rear section 2 of the seat, while its other' leaf is adapted to be attached toa vertical surface 3, which constitutes a part of the vehicle on which the chair is used and is preferably adjacent a shelf 4, so that the chair when folded up, as shown in Fig. 6, will lie above the shelf, where it will be out of the way. The seat is preferably made in two sections, and so arranged that the forward section 2a folds rearwardly over the rear section 2 (Fig. 3). In the construction shown in the drawings, this is accomplished by link connections 5 between the sections.

The back of the chair comprises a crosspiece 19 and two lateral side-members or supports. The supports are made in sections 6, 6, and 7, 7, the sections 6, 6, being pivoted at their lower ends to the seat member 2, and at their upper ends to the sections 7, 7, respectively. The back is supported in the set up position for use (Figs. 1 and 2) by shoulders 6a, 6a, on the sections 6, 6, respectively, that engage, respectively, shoulders on the seat.

A novel form of lock is shown for retaining the sections of the back in their extended positions, consisting of pins 8, 8, on the lower sections 6, 6, respectively, slots 9, 9, in the upper sections 7, 7, and a pair of outwardly projecting ears 10, 10 on the inner side of each of the lower sections 6, 6, the ears of each pair lying, respectively, one on each side of the slot. In the drawings, the ears are represented as formed by turning outwardly portions of the sections, and recesses 1l, 11, between the ears of each pair, permit the upper sections to be rotated upon their pivots between said ears (Figs. 10-12, inclusive) ,when the pins lie in the lower ends of the slots.

I/Vhen the back and the seat have been folded, as above described, the parts occupy the position of Figs. et and 5. It will be noted that in this position the four sections of the chair, including the two seat sections and the two back sections, lie in such positions that the entire width of the folded chair from front to rear is only that of the upper section of the back, while the thickness, or vertical dimension, of the folded chair is only that of the two sections of the seat, and thus the chair is folded in a very compact form. This compact arrangement is permitted by the fact that the upper back section is wider than the lower back section, thus permitting it to fold down to a position in which the side-members are in the same horizontal plane, while the forward seat section, being somewhat narrower than the space between the side-members of the back, can fold in between these side-members, thus bringing all of the sections of the chair, eX- cept the rear seat section, into substantially the same horizontal plane, while the forward and rear seat sections are separated vertically only by a sufficient space for the reception of such cushions or upholstery as may be used upon the seat. From the position of Fig. l the seat is turned upwardly, out of the way, and, if adjacent a shelf, as shown in Fig. 6, it swings in over the shelf. A support for the seat is shown which is permanently attached at one end to the seat and at the other end to the hinge plate 1. This support comprises two members 18 and 14 that slide back and forth upon each other, one of them passing through a guide 15 carried by the other (Fig. 7). `When the seat is down, ready for use (Fig. 5), the end of the lower section 13 of the support abuts against` a shoulder 16 on the section 14, and so supports the seat. Vhen the seat is. yfolded back out of the way (Figli) the sect-ions 13 and 14 of the support are fully extended,

My invention is not limited to the embodi ment hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, but may be embodied in various forms within the nature of the invention as it is defined in the following claims.

lVhat I claim is l. A folding chair having, in combination, a seat transversely divided into two sections, connections between said sections having provision for folding the front section upwardly and backwardly upon the rear section, a back divided transversely7 into two sections, connections between the back and the rear seat section having `)revision for folding the back downwardly and forwardly upon the sea-t, and connections between the back sections having provision for folding the upper section downwardly and rearwardly against the lower section.

2. A folding chair having, in combination, a seat transversely divided into two sect-ions,

connections between said sections having provision for folding the front .section upwardly and backwardly -upon the rear section, and a back comprising side-members and a cross-piece, the side-members being divided into upper andlower sections pivotally connected together, the space between the side-members and the back being greater than the width of the front section of the seat, so that when the chair is in folded position said seat-section may be interposed between the folded side-members of the back.

' 3. combination with a fixed support, a 45 folding chair comprising a seat transversely divided into two sections, connections between said sections arranged to permit the forward section Ato be folded upwardly and backwardly upon the rear section, a back hinged to the rear section and transversely divided into two sections, connections between the back sections arranged to permit the upper section to be folded downwardly `against the lower section, and connections Witnesses M. E. MosHER, D. GURNEE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents `eaclnany addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

i Washington, D. C. 

